Wikileaks and the ".goy" Huma Abedin/Hillary Clinton Email

Julian Assange and Wikileaks are getting shit from several quarters today for promoting an email from Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—with a very questionable email address:

Emails show Huma Abedin in charge of Hillary Clinton's earpiece https://t.co/9dreUeDhZ9 pic.twitter.com/QZ8BpcZk2l

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 8, 2016

Notice that email address for Abedin? It has a copyright symbol instead of an @ symbol - and it ends with ".goy" instead of ".gov."

Obvious fake - right? Proof that Wikileaks is doctoring emails - right? Also proof of anti-Semitism from Assange - right?

Assange defended the email as real, and the typos as the State Department's:

@justinjm1 No. Cut and paste the address from the PDF. What do you get? "state.goy". As we said, the typo is State's.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 8, 2016

I decided to test it. (As I'm sure others have.)

Here's a PDF of the email—not from Wikileaks, but right from the source: the State Department's FOIA reading room. (Type in "earpiece" in the search box to get to the specific email. There are three results - it's the third one. You can also view it directly at the Wikileaks website.) Abedin's email address reads "AbedinH@state.gov," just as you'd expect.

But highlight Abedin's email address in that PDF, copy it, and paste it - and this happens:

AbedinH©state.goy> 

That's me - just copying and pasting that into this blog post, straight from the actual email record at the State Department's FOIA site. It's obviously just a reading error by the copy-and-paste machine (computer coding stuff that is above my computer coding knowledge).

Fox's John Stossel: "I Only Pledge Allegiance to Wealthy America"

WASHINGTON - Fox News creepy person John Stossel announced on the morning show "Fox & Friends of Creepy People" that he doesn't pledge allegiance to "the whole America," because "that would be kind of communistic."

"The idea that we should feel allegiance to all of our fellow citizens," Stossel said, "is just some Lefty peace-and-love idea. It's straight out of Marx. Just like we shouldn't socialize our money, or our health care, we shouldn't socialize our allegiance. If, for example, Al Qaeda attacks us again, but this time they wipe out some city where there's nothing but a bunch of people on welfare—am I going to feel the same kind of loss and anger like I felt the day they attacked Wall Street? Hardly. "

"They'd be kinda doing us a favor there," co-host Brian Kilmeade said, to laughs.

"The 'Pledge of Allegiance' needs to be rewritten," Stossel continued. "It should say, 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the wealthy people that make it the greatest country in the world, and not all the lazy poor people all over the place who are constantly asking for handouts like unemployment insurance and minimum wage and on and on and on - why don't you just get a good job like rich people do? - with liberty and justice for the hard-working rich people who deserve it."

"Amen," added Kilmeade emphatically.

Photo credit.

Sarah Palin: Countries With Universal, Affordable Health Care "Don't Actually Exist"

WASHINGTON - Failed governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin told fans in a FaceBook announcement today that stories they may have heard about countries with affordable and universal health care programs were lies.

An excerpt from the post, dated 12:24 PM (EDT) this afternoon:

"All those other so-called nation countries with their so-called cheap health care programming for everyone that the Leftstream media keeps harping down our throats about—well, guess what? The DON'T ACTUALLY EXIST. It's totally a made up lie. It actually costs MORE to get sick in every other country in the world than the United States of America. I CHECKED."

Ms. Palin did not elaborate on where she "checked."

The posting received 75 million "likes," and hundreds of thousands of positive responses, including these examples:

"I. KNEW. IT. Libs - so busted."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they made up whole countries. 'Belgium'? SRSLY?"

"Sarah, I was just going to go to Europe to study this myself - you saved me a trip! Thank you so much! (And thank God - I would have had to get passport! And you can only get them at a UN office! Ick!) 

At least one commenter took issue with the posting, writing, "Uh, dumbass, I live in a country that provides universal affordable health care (Australia). I've (unfortunately) had to use that health care to deal with serious health issues. I was very well taken care of - for very little cost. I mean - do you think I'm from another dimension or something?"

That post was deleted by someone associated with Ms. Palin's FaceBook page shortly after it appeared.

Photo credit.

Aussie MPs Get ANOTHER Pay Rise

A note from little old me to Australian MPs: You are out of your freaking minds:

Federal MPs have reportedly received a $5550 pay rise, just three months after pocketing a $44,000 salary boost. 

You read that right: Three months ago the Australian government executed sweeping changes in MP pay and benefit packages (some benefits were actually cut), resulting in backbencher pay going up $44, 090 a year, from $140,910 to $185,000.

That was backbenchers: Opposition Leader (Tony Abbott presently) got a $81,564 a year boost, upping his salary from $260,684 to $342,250.

And the Prime Minister: Ms. Gillard's salary jumped by an incredible $114,000, from $366,366 to $481,000.

And now, three months later, they're getting another raise.

Holy shit. I mean just holy damn shit. (Yes, this is decided by the "Independent Renumeration Tribunal," but it's not like the MPs couldn't do something about it, if they wished.)

"Going on Strike From One's Culture"

Matt Taibbi with second thoughts about OccupyWallStreet:

Occupy Wall Street was always about something much bigger than a movement against big banks and modern finance. It's about providing a forum for people to show how tired they are not just of Wall Street, but everything. This is a visceral, impassioned, deep-seated rejection of the entire direction of our society, a refusal to take even one more step forward into the shallow commercial abyss of phoniness, short-term calculation, withered idealism and intellectual bankruptcy that American mass society has become. If there is such a thing as going on strike from one's own culture, this is it. And by being so broad in scope and so elemental in its motivation, it's flown over the heads of many on both the right and the left.

That's a really good way to look at it: It's a bit bigger than we understand right now. And that's okay.

And not just "American society," I think it's "modern society."

Coca-Cola Overturns Bottle-Ban in Grand Canyon

Because Coca-Cola should be deciding national park policy. Makes perfect sense:

Weary of plastic litter, Grand Canyon National Park officials were in the final stages of imposing a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon late last year when the nation’s parks chief abruptly blocked the plan after conversations with Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation.

Stephen P. Martin, the architect of the plan and the top parks official at the Grand Canyon, said his superiors told him two weeks before its Jan. 1 start date that Coca-Cola, which distributes water under the Dasani brand and has donated more than $13 million to the parks, had registered its concerns about the bottle ban through the foundation, and that the project was being tabled. His account was confirmed by park, foundation and company officials.

And listen to this crap, from Coca-Cola:

She also characterized the bottle ban as limiting personal choice. “You’re not allowing people to decide what they want to eat and drink and consume,” she said.

Coca-Cola is worried about our personal rights...to consume it's products in our national parks. Makes you want to stick a flag pin up your ass.

Occupying Foreclosed Homes

I haven't hear of this happening before, but it sounds like a really good idea. Could see it really taking off.

 

Stephen Colbert's Super PAC

—

Stephen Colbert - of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report - is doing something extraordinary to American politics, through the founding of his Super PAC, "Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow." It is not often that you get to witness someone of Colbert's stature pull off a stunt like this: using a law (or in this case two Supreme Court rulings) to highlight the absurdity of said law. The whole thing is downright Mark Twainian.

To get a proper idea of what Colbert is doing, look at it this way: If the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling that said it was perfectly legal for extraordinarily wealthy people to designate their homes as foreign countries - thereby making them off-limits to U.S. police organizations - Colbert would right now have a mansion next to the White House with a 24-hour-a-day, Las Vegas-themed, gangster/biker party going on, complete with drug-fueled machine-gun target practice contests, strippers in every window, and dogfights in the front yard. And possibly live kitten barbecues on the veranda.

And there would be nothing the cops could do, because the Supreme Court made it legal for extraordinarily wealthy people - and Stephen Colbert is definitely one of those - to designate their homes as foreign countries. (Colbert's would probably be called "Colbertistanistan.")

Except Colbert wouldn't be doing because he's a rich asshole - he'd be doing it to show how horribly undemocratic and morally perverse the Supreme Court ruling was. And that's exactly what he's doing here.

The Supreme Court ruling Colbert is lampooning is actually two recent rulings, and they concern one thing: the role money plays in political campaigns in the U.S. In this case by the way of the "Super PAC."

What's a Super PAC? It's a brand new kind of PAC, or "political action committee" (see last link for more on them), an organization that raises and spends money on advertising for or against candidates for public office. If you want to spend money on political candidates - apart from contributions directly to a candidate or a political party (these have their own rules) - it has to go through a PAC. It's the law. PACs have been around for a while,  but they used to have restrictions: Corporations, unions, and individuals used to have strict limits on how much money they could give to PACs; and PACs were only allowed to spend so much money. Why? Because it was believed that allowing extremely wealthy corporations, unions, or individuals to spend enormous amounts of money on political advertising gave them an unfair advantage over us regular schmoes who don't have yacht-loads of cash to spend on such things - which isn't exactly rocket science.

As of the Summer of 2010, those restrictions are gone. Thanks to those recent Supreme Court rulings. (Well, some restrictions remain, but many are gone.) What effect did it have? 84 Super PACs were quickly formed, and, over the course of only a couple months, they spent $65,326,957 on the 2010 midterm elections. $65,326,957. (And the 2012 election cycle—it'll make 2010 look like pocket change: read this. Or don't.)

Stephen Colbert looked at all of this and thought it was just nuts. Which it of course is. And he decided he was going to show just how nuts it was. How? By forming his own Super PAC. And he did it. Stephen Colbert can now hold the equivalent of drug-fueled machine-gun target practice contests, with strippers in the windows and dogfights on the lawn - right in the middle of the American political election process, and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. (He'll probably spare the kittens. He seems like a nice guy.)

An excerpt from Colbert's victory speech after getting the okay for the Super PAC from the FEC:

Sixty days ago today, on this very spot, a young man petitioned the FEC for permission to form a super PAC, to raise unlimited monies and use those monies to determine the winners of the 2012 elections. Moments ago, the Federal Election Commission made their ruling. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to say … We won!

"Sorry to say" is exactly right.

It's going to be a very interesting 2012 election year. Maybe some of it will be the good kind of interesting - thanks to Stephen Colbert.

• More here.

• All 2012 Super PACs

• Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow

[pic]

—I've edited this very lightly for clarity, and to get rid of the typo - in the first damn line. 

U.S. Sending Armed Drones From Civilian Airport

Holy crap, that sounds on its face ridiculously irresponsible.

The US Air Force is flying armed drones from a civilian airport in southern Ethiopia as part of a growing battle against Al-Qaeda linked Shabab militants in Somalia, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

How'd you like to take a flight out of that airport? Nothing dangerous about that, right?

Army Ranger Killed on 14th Deployment

I worked with a guy in a salmon cannery in Valdez, Alaska, in 1985 or so who talked about, sometimes bragged about, doing 12 tours of combat duty in Vietnam. I don't want to turn such a thing into a cliche, but he was probably the scariest person I ever came across. He was a sad, paranoid, violent man.  It actually bothers me right now in my gut just picturing his face. Not fear, but Jesus, this was the saddest individual.

I've talked about the guy a few times in the years since, and just about every time someone would say, "Nobody was allowed to do that many tours! Bullshit!"

Meet Kristoffer Domeij:

An Army Ranger who was on his 14th deployment to a combat zone has been killed in Afghanistan. 

Sgt. First Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, 29, was killed Saturday when the assault force he was with triggered a hidden roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. 

Domeij served four deployments in Iraq and another nine stints in Afghanistan. During that time he was awarded two Bronze Stars. His third Bronze Star, earned during his final tour in Afghanistan, will be awarded posthumously, according to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

14 tours and he's 29? Did he ever get home? Ai yai yai.

RIP, Kristoffer Domeij. And a good wish from far away to that guy I met in Valdez. I hope he's found some peace.

HS Teacher Faces Fines For Helping Students Register to Vote

Things that make me want to bite a moving train number googelty-million:

The teacher who heads up New Smyrna Beach High School's student government association could face thousands of dollars in fines. Her transgression? Helping students register to vote. 

Prepping 17-year-olds for the privileges and responsibilities of voting in a democracy is nothing new for civics teachers, but when Jill Cicciarelli organized a drive at the start of the school year to get students pre-registered, she ran afoul of Florida's new and controversial election law. 

Among other things, the new rules require that third parties who sign up new voters register with the state and that they submit applications within 48 hours. The law also reduces the time for early voting from 14 days to eight and requires voters who want to give a new address at the polls to use a provisional ballot.

Esquire's Charles Pierce on this here.

About the "47% of Americans don't pay taxes!" crap

Most lies like this are worth ignoring, but this one keeps cropping up, and it just did again.

For starters, it's 100% wrong. The 47% figure is about federal income tax, not taxes in general. The great majority of people who work - even those 47% who don't pay federal income tax - still pay taxes, as in payroll taxes, etc, and just about all of us pay taxes, local, state, and/or federal, on various things we buy, too. So again: Wrong. Not true. Dishonest. A lie. Take your pick - but if you hear people spreading this crap, educate their sorry asses.

Secondly, at what point does the fact that 47% of Americans DON'T MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FEDERAL INCOME TAX bother people for the right reasons, rather than inhumane political reasons?

In other words, Stop being horrible dishonest asspeople. You might actually enjoy it.

Aussie on Marriage Equality

Just one graf:

This kind of silent segregation harks back to pre-civil rights movement America, as aptly put by Ellen DeGeneres, the gay American talk show host: ''Telling us we can't get married but can settle for a civil union is like a bus driver saying to a black schoolkid, 'I'll get you there if you insist, but you can sit at the back of the bus.' ''

The writer is 16 years old.

One American on Trump and the "Long-Form"

I do not want to do a lot of politics on this blog. I just don't. But sometimes I have to. This needs to be watched, carefully, by a really lot of people.



An excerpt:

It was during my viewing of this video [Trump’s remarks in New Hampshire] that I began to cry. I thought of my ancestors, both direct and collective, who had fought and died so that I might be treated as an American. I then thought of this fetid, smug, hate-filled, wealthy white man taking credit for the release [of the "long form" birth certificate] and yet still not being satisfied. It does not matter how long we’ve been in these United States. We will never be American.

So, tears in my eyes, pain in my heart and rage in my soul, I composed this video message. More than written text, it comes close to expressing my full pain at witnessing a white man who was handed everything call the President of the United States (and me) a nigger.

Yemeni Leader Will Step Down

We are witnessing some extraordinary events these days.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has agreed to step down under a 30-day transition plan aimed at ending violent unrest over his 32-year rule.

Officials in the capital Sanaa confirmed the government had accepted the plan drawn up by Gulf Arab states.

The Changing Middle East -> U.S.

It just occurred to me: If a good chunk of the Middle East makes a dramatic move toward democracy over the next few months or years, the U.S. is going to have to change dramatically, too.

Just saying.